It’s interesting to note how some things change over time and others don;t, and why? In some ways, the lack of an MLS, while not necessarily in the best interest of the sellers, didn’t hurt them in the spiraling market of the “Exuberant 00’s” (or did it?). Prices escalated an average of 25% per year in most of the East End, and remember that 25% x 3 years nearly equals 100% (do the math) and 25% x 5 years equals more than 200%, not 125%. There are brokers and agents in this market that believe the presence of an MLS would have helped values grow even more during those high times, because of the increased exposure of Hamptons properties to the world market.

Some buyers and sellers actually like the boutique-y nature that the lack of a national listing system maintains in the market. It feels unique and special, like you have to be an “insider” to get the info.

So, what does the future hold? Certainly those in control know much better than the ranks…we’ll see, won’t we?

I remember following Alan and Kim through that house, listening intently to Jeff Colle’s best dog ‘n pony…there was no one better than Jeff. Brazilian hardwood floors, reclaimed barn wood, herringbone brick fireplaces and a guest suite for mother. Radiant heated floors, his and hers bathrooms, superbly engineered heating and cooling with constant humidity control and an extensive land sculpting plan with drainage to accommodate the over-sized gunite pool. It was the most handsome house I had ever seen. Alan liked it…Kim HAD to have it…Alan bought it. Nice!

Alan was Paul Brennan’s customer, who I was fortunate enough to meet and start working with as an assistant, soon after I began in the business. I was on the ballz of my ass after my marriage broke up and I moved from Remsenberg to Sag Harbor to launch a career in real estate. After all, I had burned out in the restaurant business after nearly 20 years, I can’t hit a nail with a hammer and have a brown thumb. What else was I going to do to try and make a living on the East End?

Paul had the customers in the Rolodex that he spun through constantly, I did the research on what to show them…he had final say, but I KNEW this was the house…and I was right. Oh, what a feeling! $5,350,000. It should have been an open listing, but Jeff ended up giving the exclusive to a soon-to-be-ex ( if I recall correctly)…gawd! It pissed Paul off, but I was just happy to be doing business, wanting to give up the bartending and bookkeepping shifts I had taken on in Wainscott to pay the rent.

The first time “it” happened, was a few months earlier with the first house that David Silvera was building on Halsey Farm Drive in Southampton, with another of Paul’s customers. That one was $3,000,000

Then again, with the house that Barry Brown built for Rob Tanner on Sarah’s Way in East Hampton (which has been on the market for 2+ years)

May 19 (Bloomberg)“This isn’t like your typical Nor’easter where a tree falls and your lights flicker,” said Michael Daly, founder of the buyers’ brokerage True North Realty Associates in North Haven, New York, and a Hamptons real estate blogger. “This is more like a Katrina,” he said, alluding to the historic 2005 Category 5 Hurricane. “It’s going to be a number of years before the market recovers.

I was interviewed for this article on Buyers Brokerage by Marcelle Fischler.

It was also in August that Michael Daly gave up being a traditional broker, and working both sides of the fence, to run the North Haven-based True North Realty Associates, a brokerage exclusively for buyers. He said he found the switch had eliminated the “smoke and mirrors” and “dual-agency conflict that has caused so much mistrust among consumers and real estate agents.”

Michael Daly, principal broker at True North Realty Associates in North Haven on Long Island’s East End, estimated that the number of rental transactions may be down by as much as 80 to 90 percent from last year at this time.
“Rentals are way down and there’s very little activity,” Daly said.

And Michael Daly, the principal broker at True North Realty Associates in the Hamptons, said some 75 percent of his deals are all cash right now. He recently represented the all-cash buyers of a $2 million Shelter Island home and a house in Westhampton Beach that sold for $7.5 million in cash.

Others have been amassing cash in recent months in anticipation of real estate bargains, Daly said.

“A lot of people have gone heavy into cash over the course of the last year,” he said. “They’re waiting for the bottom — in all types of investments. For those who feel that the bottom is here, it’s time to make a move.”

As the chaos on Wall Street has unfolded in recent weeks, observers have waited for the Manhattan real estate market, with its close ties to the financial sector, to show signs of a slowdown. But it’s the East End where the Wall Street meltdown has led to immediate aftershocks, brokers say.

Sales activity in the Hamptons — the popular weekend destination for Wall Street tycoons — has all but stopped, prices have plunged and deals are disintegrating, brokers on the East End said.

“We’re so Wall Street-focused out here,” said Michael Daly, principal broker at True North Realty Associates. “In the past week, it’s like everyone is holding their breath.”

Fashion designer Adrienne Vittadini’s five-bedroom waterfront home in Water Mill, listed with Sotheby’s International Realty, was recently reduced from $6.95 million to $6.495 million, down more than $1 million from its original listing price of $7.6 million, according to an Internet-based listings exchange system. An eight-bedroom home on Parsonage Lane in Sagaponack, originally listed at $9.995 million, is now $8.495 million, while a Bay Avenue home in Water Mill first priced at $4.995 million now is available for $3.995 million.

Judi Desiderio, CEO of Town & Country Real Estate in East Hampton, said in the past 10 days, nearly half of the company’s deals have fallen through or been negotiated at the closing table, while sales prices on many properties have been rolled back an average of 20 percent.

Desiderio attributes the slowdown to the Hamptons’ popularity as a second-home spot for Wall Streeters.

“I’ve always said that there’s an umbilical cord between the Hamptons and Wall Street,” she said. “They get a tummy ache — we have to lie down to feel better.”

“We’re the luxury items,” Desiderio said. “We’re like buying a bigger boat — you only buy it when you need it or you can afford it.”

Before stocks rallied Friday, the S&P 500 had fallen for seven straight days, its longest losing streak since 1996. The declines pushed the S&P 500 down more than 40 percent from its peak last October.

In the past week, Hamptons brokers have seen phones stop ringing, e-mail inboxes sit empty and the flow of visitors at sales offices slow to a trickle, according to Robert Murray, a broker in the Corcoran Group’s Westhampton office.

“Everything’s come to a halt,” Murray said, adding that plunging stock prices have “basically killed any activity. We’re in a holding pattern.”

He said the few calls he’s received this week are from “bottom fishers:” buyers looking for firesale prices. “I’ve gotten calls from people saying, ‘what’s the best bargain out there?'” Murray said.

Despite the perception that good prices are available, many buyers are afraid to act because they’re waiting for the market to bottom out, said Daly of True North Realty, and author of the Hamptons Real Estate Blog.

“Anyone who is in the process of negotiating or moving on a property just appears to be taking a let’s-wait-and-see attitude,” he said. “When we do see a bottom, we’ll see some good activity.”

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“Nearly 98 percent of real estate agents in New York only represent the seller,” even if they are taking the buyer on tour to see properties, he said. “Those buyers are now looking for representation in the transaction.”